Everywoman

India's new look parliament

Plus the woman building a safe place for children to play in Gaza.

10 Jun 2008 11:00 GMT

Dr. Kiswar, a veteran women's activist,joins the show

India is the world's biggest democracy, but only eight per cent of its MPs are women. For more then a decade campaigners have been fighting for the Women's Reservation Bill, which would guarantee women a third of the seats in parliament.

We look at the debate raging around this bill with Madhu Kiswar, a veteran woman's activist and founder of one of India's foremost feminist journals.

Playground in Gaza

Where do you play if you are a child in Gaza? In Rafah, one of the towns hardest hit by the second intifada, there are no safe places.

Rafah's refugee camps are teeming, and the town itself is battered and poor.

Kids are forced to play in destroyed buildings or places where their lives are at risk. But Everywoman meets one woman who is trying to change things. Fida Qishta is fighting for a site where, with the help of donations, she can build a playground. Leila Haddad reports.

Each year the hunters of the Faroe Islands in Scandinavia kill some 1,500 pilot whales. This is seen as a traditional part of their culture. The mammals are herded towards the shore, where they are beached and killed. The meat is then shared with the whole community.

Animal rights campaigners condemn whaling as cruel and inhumane. But one former green activist, Australian Kate Sanderson, is now an active campaigner for the pro-whaling lobby, and chairs the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commisison.

Everywoman travelled to the Faroe islands to meet her.

Female firefighters

For the first time, Iran has allowed womento become firefighters

Now to the Iranian women blazing a trail. Women in Iran cannot become judges or run for president, and many jobs that are traditionally male are closed to them.

But now for the first time, the Islamic Republic has allowed women to become firefighters. Some argue that this is just a token gesture, others that it shows real change in jobs Iranian women can begin to take on.

Everywoman meets some of the first female recruits at a fire station near Tehran.